Back to the Beginning
by artemisian
Summary: At twenty-five, Rin is close to achieving his once thought to be childish aspiration to become Paladin, when a simple mission goes awry and he dies. He's given a second chance however when, without explanation, he wakes up three days before his father's death, but this time ... Rin vows to changes everything.


Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the idea.

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Summary: At twenty-five, Rin is close to achieving his once thought to be childish aspiration to become Paladin, when a simple mission goes awry and he dies. He's given a second chance however when, without explanation, he wakes up three days before his father's death, but this time ... Rin vows to changes _everything. _

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I have a major weakness for time-travel fics, it's so ridiculous. I love this trope and I'm going to write like a million time travel fics, one for each fandom I'm in.

(I'm just joking.

_Or am I?_)

This is obviously a major, major, major au and the subplots and arcs in the manga are definitely probably _not_ going to make an appearance in this fic. On that note, this fic is based on a mix of the manga, the anime, and a lot of my own headcanons.

In episode four of the anime, Yukio mentions ents as being a possible cause of Shiemi's 'root' and so I ran with the idea and played it fast and loose with the mythology surrounding the creatures. They don't appear again, so any grievous errors shouldn't be too important. I just needed a type of creature to kill Rin and set the plot in motion.

Pairings: N/A, this is gonna be a genfic.

Warnings: Canon typical violence, major character death, angst maybe?

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_I was trying to protect you, Rin._

_Hey, give it another ten years!_

_( I was sure that I could protect you … ) _

_Blue Exorcist – Episode 20: Mask_

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Prologue: Death of a Hero

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There was a trail of blood leading anyone who cared to look right to their position, but Yukio couldn't bring himself to care. He didn't have it in him to care, especially not when there were more important things to worry about.

Like Rin bleeding out all over his shirt and the ground.

For a moment, there's nothing but Rin's loud pained breathing and the sound of cicadas and grasshoppers to fill the silence, and then – inexplicably – Rin starts laughing. Yukio presses his hands harder against the area around Rin's wound, hoping to somewhat stem both the bleeding and Rin's hysterical, albeit _quiet_, laughter - but aside from a wince, Rin continues.

"... it's kinda hilarious, if you think about it. I can't believe an _ent_ is the thing that kills me ... it's so pathetic I can't help but laugh!" And he begins laughing again, only to be cut off by the sound of his own hacking, wet coughs.

It truly _was_ ironic that a mission that would have originally been assigned to fresh ExWires is the mission that succeeded in what seemed to be the impossible - killing the son of Satan. What's even more ironic is that Rin and Yukio never would've even been assigned the mission if Rin hadn't tried to dye Angel's hair grey and the mission itself was only supposed to take about ten minutes, especially for such seasoned exorcists such as the Okumura brothers.

Things had gone awry when the two brothers had realized that not only was there was more than one ent, but a veritable army of them ... and they'd gotten powerful enough to possess the trees completely in the forest Rin and Yukio had been sent to, becoming powerful, large, hulking things that caused small tremors in the earth when they moved. Powerful as they were, they still were no match for the two brothers, and the fell under Rin's sword and Yukio's gun.

But the fact remained that there were too many of them. It took only a swing of Rin's sword or a well-aimed shot to bring one of them down, but when one fell, two more took its place.

Things went from bad to worse when an ent got a lucky shot on Rin and punctured his shoulder with a sharp, long branch growing out of its forehead (or what Rin _assumed_ to be his forehead) and although the ent fell moments later from a clean cut of his sword, the injury didn't close up immediately and heal as it normally did.

"Yukio!" Rin had said, blue flames ablaze all over his body - cutting down ents left and right effortlessly. "These things - "

"Ents." Yukio had corrected.

"_Ents_ are doing something to my healing. One of 'em hit me and the wound isn't closing up. So, don't let them hit you!"

"Shouldn't I be telling _you_ that, Nii-san?" Yukio had quipped back smartly and that had been the end of that, as both brothers went back to killing the ents, although Yukio covered Rin's back with a viciousness that hadn't been present before Rin had gotten hurt.

It had taken nearly an hour to kill all of the ents, and just when Rin had thought he'd sliced and diced the _very_ last one, another had appeared out of the shadows, small and very, very fast and made it's way right towards Yukio – who had his back turned, and at the speed the ent was going, it'd be impossible for him to move in time.

It happened in the span of a few milliseconds - Rin running and throwing himself in front of his younger brother, just as the ent was about to reach Yukio's unprotected back, it's branch-like arms extended and ready to attack.

The ent's arms pierced Rin's chest with a wet and sickly squelch, emerging out of his back, spindly wooden fingers just barely able to reach Yukio. Rin had cut the ent's arms off with a weak upward thrust, dropping to his knees without the aid of the ent to keep him on his feet. The small ent's life was ended swiftly when Yukio had turned, seen Rin injured, and emptied the last of his clip between the ent's beady, black eyes.

"You're not going to die," Yukio says firmly, bringing Rin back to the present. "I won't let you."

"Yeah? ... I don't think it's up to you. There _are_ some things in life you can't control, Yukio." Curiously, Rin raises a shaking hand to probe none-too-gently at the arm still stuck in his chest, wincing when the action makes the ever-present pain flare up worse.

Yukio smacks Rin's bloodied hand away with one of his own before going back to press around the wound, making a frustrated noise in the back of his throat when Rin's hand stubbornly settles on top of Yukio's, gripping his fingers tightly and trying to help stem the bleeding. "Don't touch that. We don't know exactly what the ent was able to hit and we can't take it out because you'll just _bleed_ more ... _dammit, _I called for back-up fifteen minutes ago, where _are_ they -"

"Did you call Shura? Th'nk she said something about a spa day - " With a pained wheeze, Rin reclines fully on the ground, unable to keep craning his neck up to look at his brother properly, as the pain was becoming too much. It was only due to his demonic heritage and accelerated healing that he had held onto life for so long, but it didn't look as if just those two things were going to be able to get him out alive this time.

"Stop talking, you need to save your strength." Yukio snaps tiredly at his older brother, with no heat or malice. Despite his words, concern very plainly was able to be seen in his eyes, the way he hadn't stopped trying to stem the bleeding.

For a few moments, Rin obliges Yukio and stays silent, mulling over his next few words, trying not to breathe too deeply lest he jostle the ents arm sticking out of his chest.

"Hey ... Yukio ... do you think the old man is still mad at me for what I said to him before he died?"

"Nii-san ... I -" Yukio's voice is a bit wobbly, but he continues valiantly after a calming breath, voice steadier than before. "I don't think our father was ever mad at you - "

"Okay ..." Rin whispers softly, his grip on Yukio's hand going slack. "I guess I can face him now ..."

"Wait - no, _no_, stay with me - back-up should be here soon - "

Yukio waits for some sort of reply, a snort, a laugh, Rin chortling and telling him this whole thing was a joke, but it never happens.

"Nii-san?" Yukio tries again, fingers reaching for the pulse on Rin's neck and finding no heartbeat. Rin wasn't breathing either, and the warmth of his body was fading fast, possibly because of his demonic heritage, possibly because of some other unforeseen reason.

"_Nii-san!_"

There's nothing to answer Yukio, just the buzzing of cicadas, the chirping of grasshoppers, and the sound of his own labored breathing as the reality of the situation hits him like a punch to the throat.

Rin was dead.

His brother was _dead_ and no amount of luck would save him this time.

Rin was dead.

And Yukio had lost the only family he'd had left.

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_( I'm sorry I couldn't protect you ... )_

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_Fin ... _(for now)

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Okay! There was the prologue. Next chapter is Rin going back in time and encountering some unexpected complications.

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I'm blackqualad over on tumblr if you'd like to follow me for more ridiculousness!

Review if you'd like! Positive feedback and concrit will definitely encourage me to write faster (maybe!) This is my first ane fanfic so my 'voices' for the characters may be a bit wobbly, let me know how I did!


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